


when new earth swallows the remains

by zanykingmentality



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Day 4: Celestial, F/M, Future Fic, Storytelling, Zutara Week 2020, idk how to tag this dude, like waaaay in the future, outside perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25617913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanykingmentality/pseuds/zanykingmentality
Summary: The old storyteller has some words for the children. About hope. About love.About a Fire Lord and his Lady.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48





	when new earth swallows the remains

**Author's Note:**

> hi i'm a day late with this and i scrambled to finish it so i really... really hope it's ok.... 
> 
> unbeta-d but spellchecked, so please forgive any lingering errors~ enjoy!

Gather ‘round, children. While your teachers are out, let me tell you a story. Shh. I will tell you a story about love, and about heart. I will tell you about how the moon loved the sun so much, she covered his scars and brought him back to life. 

The inquisitive one raises his hand. “Is this about the Day of Black Sun?” 

Maybe, I tell him. But maybe the story is not about when. It is about why. 

* * *

There once was a girl of the Southern Water Tribe. She was alone. Stranded among the ice, the sun’s Fire Nation brethren had taken everything from her. 

(“I thought they liked each other,” said the romantic one. 

Not for a long time, I tell her. Further elaboration would spoil the story, and there is nothing worse than a half-told story.) 

The moon loves very deeply. The girl takes after it. Later, they would call her Master Katara, for her fighting prowess, and her devotion to healing. And for her name, of course. 

(One student laughs.) 

The sun, on the other hand, was searching for something. The person who would help him restore his honor. He had lost it, you see, or so he was told. We have him to thank for our popular saying, honor is your own. Although our prince was indeed very honorable, it was his evil father that turned the world against him. He had nowhere to go. He had to find the something to be welcomed back. 

The moon had that something. Or, maybe it’s more appropriate to say that the something was _with_ her. 

(The inquisitive one raises his hand. “What’s the difference?” I do not answer him; I look at the arrow on his head and smile.) 

For most of their lives, they orbited the same point, passing each other without a second glance. And when General Zhao briefly killed the Moon Spirit in the Battle of the Northern Water Tribe, the sun struck down Master Katara and escaped. This is what, you will one day learn, is syzygy. Opposite sides, all in line, where the Sun’s creation of Earth’s shadow blocks out the moon. That is, of course, speaking from a purely scientific standpoint. We have little use of science in storytelling. 

(“Why?” asks the studious one. “Science tells us the objective facts about the world. How could anything not need it?” 

There are some things unexplainable by science, I say.) 

That’s not how it happened on that day, but for our purposes, we’ll say it was. 

Now, this is unknown to most people, but the sun moves, too. It carries the world along with it. And after that battle, the sun began to move faster. Explosions happened. He was learning to embrace himself. And every time he shone on the moon, she raged at him and called on the oceans to help her against the sun. 

Until. One day, in the low catacombs of Ba Sing Se, that far off, indestructible kingdom ― in that great city, when the moon and the sun came face to face, the tides were, for once, quiet. They watched. They listened. But, unfortunately, it was not yet time. The sun moved away again, and the seas raged. 

Yet the sun can never _really_ leave the moon. They are bound in orbit by that red string we call Fate. 

Now, we reach the Day of Black Sun. Can anyone tell me what they know about that day? 

(“Water Tribe troops ambushed the Fire Nation capital during the eclipse,” the studious one says. “The raid failed in its mission to assassinate Firelord Ozai because of Princess Azula’s tunnels.” 

Very good, I say, but that is not the day I am referring to.) 

We call this day the Day of Black Sun in the storytelling community. That is, those of us that tell the histories of Firelord Zuko and his wife. It is not _that_ battle, the early ambush. No, it is the day of Sozin’s Comet, when the estranged Prince Zuko defeated his sister in an Agni Kai. 

(The students whisper amongst themselves. Agni Kai is an art lost to the years.) 

You see, it is not often that the sun sacrifices himself. Or, more accurately: there is one thing whose pull the sun cannot live without. Can anyone guess what it is? 

(“The moon?” the romantic one asks. I smile.) 

That’s right, the moon. As we know, all things must exist in balance. Yin and yang, _tui_ and _la_. And so, we have sun and moon, and their constant push against each other. 

Not to say the sun and moon are always enemies. More often than not, they are friends. Friendship is a balance between two wildly different yet similar people, and that is exactly the case with the moon and sun. 

The point is, when the moon and the sun are on the same side, they are unstoppable. Master Katara, waterbender and healer from the Southern Water Tribe. Firelord Zuko, crown prince of the Fire Nation, our home. 

One day, when taking back the Fire Nation, the sun and the moon bound together to fight the evil princess. 

(“She wasn’t evil, though,” says the flexible one. “I thought it was Ozai who was evil.” 

You’re right, I tell her. Evil is, more often than not, a learned behavior. And our princess was so young. How could she have known better?) 

And on that day, the sun fell. 

To fall in the Fire Nation was the greatest disgrace of all. Prince Zuko had done it once before. (I point to my left eye.) So, to shield him, to protect him, the moon covered up the sun, healing it. Master Katara chained the misguided princess and brought the sun back to life, little by little. Though the sun waned, as the moon shifted, it came back into view. 

The Fire Nation politicians did not like a waterbender in their midst. But Master Katara had an eye for people and politics, and she became the most powerful Fire Lady in history. She brought a role that was usually associated with subservience into the light. 

Because of the love they shared, we have the Fire Nation you see today: diverse and beautiful, creationist. There are chances for everyone. Anyone can be anything, unbound by antiquated tradition while still staying true to the old values of Fire Nation history. We have become a strong nation in a different way. 

(“So the marriage was mostly about fixing the country?” asks the romantic one. 

No, I say. The marriage came first. And everything else fell into place.) 

(Far away, in the land of spirits, Zuko and Katara tap their tea cups together with a soft _clink._ ) 

**Author's Note:**

> hnn i don't know how i feel about this one but! i hope you all liked it! drop a kudos/comment and tell me how you felt, and/or hit me up on tumblr @ zanykingmentality !


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